Metamorphoses

XIV

Without ceremony, Artem Wyzhinski bundled Jules Kral into the boot of his battered Mercedes and closed it. He looked in Will’s eyes and said curtly, ‘He’ll be safest in there for now, Willemczu.’

‘Where did you find him, uncle?’

‘In a very strange position, son. With a very … er … unconventional sexual partner. Say no more. You’ll want to keep down your lunch.’

Afran interrupted and ordered Janos and Artem into covering positions. He checked his watch, hissing at them that the police raid was about to happen on the other side of the building.

Soon muffled shouting and some subdued banging came from inside the house, as the police raid began on cue at the front of the building. Within five minutes a Rothenian voice called out of the back door Afran and his uncles had forced. ‘Clear at the front!’

‘No one exited here!’ Afran shouted back.

A police commandant poked his grinning head round the door. ‘We took five adults, and a number of child sex workers of varying ethnicities. We’re loading up a pile of boxes of files. First debriefing at HQ at six this evening. Be there. Our thanks Wyzhinskis …. and who thought I’d ever in my life say that?’

Will and Afran took seats in Artem’s old Mercedes, and as they pulled away his uncle told Will that he was going to drop off Jules at Grossmutta’s house. ‘She won’t take any crap from him and she has the cold turkey cellar ready for him. That’s where she imprisoned Janos when he got addicted to heroin.’

‘Fuckin’ worked too,’ admitted Uncle Janos.

‘Let’s get back to your Grossmutta’s,’ ordered Afran. ‘Whoever the city police have rounded up, we’re going to get more out of that young twerp, Kral.’

‘Then why not hand him over to the police?’ Will shook his head.

‘Because it would devastate his parents, who deserve better.’

Artem sniggered. ‘Listen to your boyfriend, Will. He’s got a lot more experience than you know about, and he may be young, but he studied counter-intelligence and interrogation at his mother’s side, and she must have been the very best.’

‘Is that true, Afran?’

Afran shrugged, ‘There weren’t always many of us in our Kurdish resistance groups, and not even a teenage boy could escape picking up some responsibility.’

Will stared at Afran, who suddenly seemed like a different boy. ‘What … torture, execution?’

‘I don’t think that it’ll be necessary with Jules Kral, much though he might deserve it.’

‘But …?’

‘Is this a conversation we need to have now, Will?’

‘No, no. Not now at least.’

The car pulled out and Artem drove them briskly a few blocks. At the Wyzhinski house, Janos pulled a protesting Jules out of the boot and propelled him in an armlock down the front area stairs into the basement. Janos sat the naked boy in a chair, cuffing his ankles to the chair legs and his wrist behind his back. Jules was in a sad state. Will glimpsed a dark gape between his buttocks as he was wrestled around. His inner legs were streaked with his own wastes and he was the source of an animal stink in the cell. Artem took Will’s shoulder. ‘Leave him to me and Afran, son. We’ll clean him up and start unpicking his mind. See you and your dad at the police barracks at six, okay?’

***

Oskar von Tarlenheim and Will Vincent looked up from their menus in the Flavienerhof restaurant on the Plaz as a third party joined them. The man appeared in some haste, and paused to catch his breath before bobbing his head and asking permission to take a seat.

Will looked with some interest at the anonymous middle-aged gentleman, a colonel in the Rothenian Sichertsdeinst. ‘Durchlaucht,’ the man began, ‘the city police and their assets have been prompt and successful in their counterstroke. We believe they have cauterised the gang’s activities, and we have their leadership in the hands of our own interrogators.’

‘Excellent, colonel. Commendations will be issued. It’s not often the Strelzen City Police get public credit for their work.’

‘They deserve it, sir. These criminals had already pissed off the police and local rivals in the vice trade on the Wejg, and they were aching to take them out.’

Oskar gave a smile. ‘Any preliminary conclusions, colonel?’

‘They’re Russians, sir. FSB fingerprints all over them, showing all their trademark careless arrogance too. The sextortion attempt on you was out of one of their troll farms in Smolensk. We can already link them to the assassination attempt on Prince Afran of Kurdistan last year.’

Oskar frowned. ‘That’s all we need to know, then. The Emperor has already set in motion the consequences, and they will be dramatic. The Oecumene will break off diplomatic relations with the Russian Federation this evening, and the Regent will receive a very curt ultimatum. We imagine he may attempt to salvage his pride by threatening nuclear annihilation on the West unless the Oecumene gives in to what will be his very presumptuous counter-demands, and … that will be when the fun begins.’

Will Vincent was gobsmacked. ‘You mean, this is war? Are we ready for this?’

***

King Maxim II Elphberg looked around him curiously. ‘This is the St Andrew’s Hall, Uncle Henry. Gotta admit it’s impressive. The imperial thrones under the baldaquin take some beating, though I do prefer mine at the Strelzen Residenz. It’s quite comfy. Henry the Lion saw nothing effeminate in decent upholstery.’

The king was in his white and gold uniform as colonel of his Leibgarde, so it had to be said he looked appropriately dressed for an outing to the nicer parts of the Grand Kremlin Palace. Henry on the other hand was in his usual work suit. ‘So the Regent presumes to occupy those thrones when he holds audience? Wow! That is some hubris.’

‘And we know what follows on from hubris don’t we,’ said the boy king

There was a commotion behind the pair, as Russian guardsmen in teal-blue uniforms and Napoleonic era shakos filed into the hall, and began lining its arcades. Maxxie smirked. ‘We have their attention, it seems.’

A guards officer hesitantly approached. ‘You are the King of Rothenia come to ask audience of the Regent of Holy and Imperial Russia?’

‘Not quite, captain,’ smiled King Maxim. ‘I am the envoy of my father, the Emperor Rudolf, come to summon Mikhail Mikhailovich Medvedhev, who calls himself Regent of Russia, to judgement.’

The captain stared. ‘You … you … presume to dictate to the Regent in his own palace?’

Maxxie scoffed. ‘It’s not his palace. He’s stolen it from a greater past. Now. Is he coming, or do I have to go and get him?’ The king added in Rothenian, ‘Gotta say, Uncle Henry, Malik-Rammu was easier to deal with once he realised what he was up against. But this guy is a lot more stupid.’

The captain stared and then hurriedly clattered off across the marble floors.

‘Do you think the Regent will actually come?’ Henry asked, as he watched the officer disappear back amongst the arcades.

Maxxie shrugged. ‘We’re counting on it, Dad and I. Medvedhev is a gangster, showing fear would weaken him in the eyes of his mob. Besides, he must be curious as to how we penetrated his security.’

Henry gravitated along the hall, and began meditating on the symbolism he found around the throne. Maxxie wandered up behind him. Though not yet fifteen the king already overtopped his godfather. ‘Now there’s irony,’ he remarked, pointing up above the throne alcove.

Henry squinted. ‘Your eyes are better than mine, Maxxie.’

The king chuckled. ‘It’s an Eye of Providence carved above the Czar’s throne.’

‘Oh right, that thing like a pyramid with an eye staring out of it. It symbolises the all-seeing eye of God. Ironic? Oh, I get it. The Regent can’t have much idea of what it symbolises, and I don’t suppose his pet patriarch would be likely to tell him.’

’My thoughts exactly, Uncle Henry. Therefore it is time that the Seraph Mendamero and the Promised One educated the Regent of Russia about the meaning of Righteousness, don’t you think?’

At that moment, the great golden doors behind them, opposite the throne, were opened and the Regent and his retinue entered the St Andrews Hall. The man, bulky in figure, was garbed in cloth of gold and fur in a costume recalling a Muscovite boyar, a fur-trimmed Tartar cavalry helmet on his head.

‘Theatrical.’ Maxxie commented with a broad grin, as the man stalked past him and Henry, to take his stand in front of the imperial throne and adopt a commanding pose, chin up.

‘Boy, you claim to be the King of Rothenia, son of the so-called Emperor of the Oecumene,’ he declared in Russian. ‘How can that be? My agents are quite confident that Maxim Elphberg is currently in school in England. What strange imposture is this? How did you penetrate the Kremlin Palace?’

Maxxie gave a relaxed laugh. ‘My dear Mikhail Mikhailovich, so many questions. You may be disappointed of answers too. But I do have one for you. You stated yesterday that you were intending to rain ballistic nuclear missiles on the cities of my kingdom and so to annihilate Holy Rothenia. That caught my attention, and I have come to ask what in the name of God gives you the right to sterilise Central Europe of human life?’

‘Right? You ask about my right? Your warmongering father has stolen the territory of Holy Imperial Russia, God’s truest and most orthodox realm on Earth, not any Unholy Rothenia. Such arrogance has to be punished, and world brought into balance.’

Maxim’s smile had passed quickly into a frown. ‘Fear and anger? An illusory and self-awarded mission from God Almighty? Is that it? What do you make of this, Lord Mendamero?’

Henry shrugged. ‘Such a man as this one can have no sincere belief in the God he professes, your majesty. A God of mercy, love and justice would not tolerate such conscienceless brutality, and even someone as deranged as this man would fear such a God’s correction in some corner of his mind did he indeed believe in him.’

The Regent seemed to be becoming aware that the scene he thought he was scripting was beginning to escape his control. His face was reddening and his fingers snapping with vexation. ‘Silence fool! Dare not defy God’s Viceroy on Earth to his face.’

Maxxie’s voice in response was calm but very clear and it spoke into an absolute silence that filled the great hall. ‘As my dear friend and mentor, the Seraph Mendamero, prince of the Erelim of Heaven, will happily tell you, Mikhail Mikhailovich, the Creator God did not leave his Creation without a protector and guardian, and that person is myself, God’s anointed Viceroy on Earth, the Promised One, the Golden Elphberg.’

The Regent’s eyes were bulging with rage, but no answering tirade escaped his mind, for he was becoming aware that the teenage schoolboy he thought he had at his mercy had transformed into a more adult figure, powerful and beautiful and crowned with light, while the man accompanying him was a man no longer, but a many-winged being the glance of whose eyes was terrible. It was the seraph who spoke next into the silence in a voice that caused the foundations of reality to totter.

‘Hear O Nations! The Lord your God is a God of Justice. He who threw down the Unrighteous Kings of Israel and Judah is that same God still, and those who seek to rule in His name must know the cost He exacts for such presumption.’

The being of light that had been the boy Maxim Elphberg strode up the dais and seated himself upon the imperial throne. ‘Mikhail Mikhailovitch, in the name of the God in whose name all true kings rule, I cast you down, and with you that Russia you claim to rule, for you are no righteous ruler and certainly no king. Now you will be sent from here to a place of confinement where thousands have already suffered from your malice. You will take the place of that prince you imprisoned there and you will suffer what you planned he should suffer.’ The Regent screeched as his clothing was stripped from him, an emperor with no clothes, and in a moment more he had disappeared.

In the Regent’s place stood now a tall and gaunt man, barefoot in striped prison pyjamas. He stared around himself confounded and fearful, Grand Duke Georg Romanov. A small procession of dazed-looking Orthodox clerics entered the hall bearing folded robes and items of regalia, they stared at the unveiled seraph hovering above them. The being commanded them to dress the Grand Duke and seat him on the imperial throne, and when this was done to give the crown they also bore to Maxim. Then the Seraph said:

‘To your knees you faithless clerks who served and flattered a foul antichrist. You will lay down your orders and the Church will find more honest pastors, but you will first witness a great wonder worked by your God. For the Cap of Monomakh will be placed this day on the head of a new and more worthy ruler of the Great Russian people, and he will be crowned by the hand of the Son of God himself, the Promised One, and he will rule his people in the person of the Grand Prince of Muscovy, not any Czar, for the lords of Russia have never yet proved worthy of that act of self-exaltation.’

And so on a day of many miracles in the St Andrews Hall of the Grand Kremlin Palace, before amazed soldiers of the guard, a cowering gang of terrified oligarchs and a party of disgraced and weeping patriarchs and bishops, was Georg Romanov crowned ruler of the Muscovites in the presence of a seraph sent from the court of Heaven and at the hands of the King of Rothenia, the Golden Elphberg. But not the least of the miracles of that day was that before its end every thermonuclear device held by the Russian state had disappeared from the face of the earth.

‘Where did you put them, Henry?’ Maxxie asked his godfather as they departed Moscow.

Henry Atwood shrugged. ‘I thought of stacking them on the Dark Side of the Moon, but the pollution they could cause made me rethink. So they’re currently in a clump of metal falling into the Sun where I don’t think they can do too much damage. I added the Chinese arsenal too. The American one is long defunct. Are you sure we got them all? Good. That’s solved the Russian problem for now. Now you’d better head on back to Medwardine and tell Nicky Romanov that his dad is free and that he is now a grand prince of Russia, so he outranks Leo.’

***

The Emperor Rudolf of the Oecumene was a little pissed off with Mendamero. ‘Outfield, I knew you were going seraphic on me, but when you are going to do something this dramatic, some advance warning would help. And it was not just you at work was it?’

‘Well, Maxxie had his part to play, but I was the responsible adult in the room I suppose, so far as I am a responsible adult. Anyway, here I am to give you a briefing. That’s good of me, at least. Moscow’s Red Square is full of pilgrims and religious banners, and the Russian Orthodox Church is in collapse, for it appears that a seraph sent from God appeared in the Kremlin before hundreds of witnesses and dismissed its episcopate while crowning Georg Romanov as Grand Prince. The former Regent has disappeared and no one believes he came to any good end. So the Russian problem may not yet be solved, but I have changed its nature decisively. So now it’s over to the Oecumene.’

The Emperor grimaced and shrugged. ‘The Romanov Grand Duke of the Finns has occupied Karelia and ordered St Petersburg to accept his cousin Georg as Grand Prince. Finland isn’t in the Oecumene yet, so at least we can’t be acccused of meddling. But a nuclear winter is no longer in the offing, so so far, so good. I shall hand the whole problem of the Caucasus to your Ed. No doubt he will want to thank you for the challenging opportunity you have created.’

‘Yes sir. Er … I didn’t think I had to check with you before changing the nature of the dialogue beween God and His Creation. Maxxie thought it was time, and I’m learning to trust his instincts on certain matters.’

Rudolf gave a slight shrug. ‘Henry, this is all very much beyond me. It is exciting and even exhilarating on one level. There is a God and He is at work in mysterious ways His wonders to perform, and the fact that Henry Atwood is His chosen intrument is as mysterious as you can get. But He has solved the problem of nuclear warfare once and for all, so what’s not to like, and He is bringing low the proud and evil, too many of whom have assumed power in the world. That corrupt monster Medvedhev was hurled down in his own Kremlin. I wish there was a video of it. Any idea what happened to him?’

‘He was sent to a gulag somewhere in Siberia, the same one where he had confined Grand Duke Georg. I don’t much fancy his chances of surviving that excursion.’

‘I won’t worry too much about the man, but the land he ruled is a different matter. Will Russia beyond the Urals survive? Which of his former sidekicks will attempt a coup? If the ramshackle federation falls apart, what will become of Eurasia between the Urals and the Bering Sea? I really think I need to talk to Jimmy Mountbatten-Windsor.’

***

Leo and Nicky had been following the news from Russia with considerable anxiety. The news became stranger and stranger as Nicky translated the various bulletins they could access from the media suite to which the school gave them access.

The collapse of the Regent’s regime seemed hopeful to Leo, though it made Nicky fearful. ‘Of course that horrible tyrant has gone, but with one tyrant removed someone even worse may step in to fill his place.’ Leo pointed out that the BBC was screening a shot showing the personal banner of the Romanov family fluttering above the Kremlin Grand Palace. ‘Someone’s decided your family offers a better future than another tyrannical Regent.’ He also pointed out to Nicky the news that Romanov Finnish troops had seized St Petersburg without opposition and had proclaimed Nicky’s father Grand Prince.

The two boys were suddenly aware that a Year 10 lad was with them in the suite. ‘Maxxie!’ cried Leo. ‘Where’ve you been? Is this something to do with you?’

‘Yup,’ declared the grinning king. ‘Now I’m just here to tidy things up and cover up my tracks.’

Nicky stared. ‘What do you mean? How can this have anything to do with Maxxie?’

Leo cocked an eyebrow at his brother. ‘Maxxie is a lot more than he seems, Nicky. Is it time to tell him?’

Maxim rolled his eyes. ‘Looks like. It’s always complicated, and I’m learning that the best thing is to do a little miracle to get things started.. So you two go get warm coats on. Quick. We haven’t got long.’

When the two returned wrapped in parkas they found the door to the media suite opened on a different place, a dark, cold and high chamber. Its walls were painted and gilded, with many haloed clerics and warriors. Some light filtered down from high set, arched lancets. The smell of incense was heavy in the air.

‘I know this place,’ remarked Nicky. ‘It’s the Cathedral of the Dormition, the coronation place of the Romanovs. But how can we be in …’.

‘Moscow?’ grinned Maxxie.

‘That’s the secret,’ Leo said. ‘Maxxie is not like other humans. He’s an upgrade. He goes where he wants and if he’s in a good mood he sometimes takes his loyal little brother, and now for the first time his brother’s best friend.’

‘But Moscow?’ Nicky asked.

Maxxie sniggered. ‘It’s not the same any more. That Regent is gone and I do believe is occupying the same gulag cell in which he imprisoned your dad, Nicky. And talking of your dad, he is presently coming to terms with being the Grand Prince of Muscovy and Greater Russia.’

‘What? But how is that possible?’

‘I had to pull off a major miracle for the first time. It involved a visitation to Earth by a six-winged seraph and the public and sensational dismissal of the hierarchy of the Russian Orthodox Church. I seem to have started off a religious revival in the city outside, but the restoration of the Romanov monarchy is one other desirable result.’

‘And Dad is safe?’

‘Indeed he is. All the supporters of the ex-Regent are on the run. His secret police are off the streets. St Petersburg is firmly under Romanov control. The army is in its barracks, but several of the less corrupt generals have pledged allegiance to the Romanov monarchy. If he has any sense, your Dad is preparing the ground for alignment with the Oecumene. Romanov Finland is certainly pushing him that way.’

‘And you did all that, Maxxie?’

‘Well … let’s say I triggered it, with a bit of help. I have some very canny and supernatural advisers who live in a place beyond this world.’

‘Eden,’ stated Leo. ‘You said you’d take me there one day.’

‘And I will, Leo. Just not yet. Now boys, we gotta go back to school, but at least you know what’s going on, Nicky; more than anyone else does. And that’s a change that has to happen. In the new world to come, my world, the human powers that be must come to realise that there are vigilant spirits who watch over how they rule humanity, and that crime and tyranny will be punished and corrected.’

NEXT CHAPTER

Copyright © 2025 Michael Arram